The Times In Hamden: Are They A‑Changin’?

More diversity, familiar faces — analyzing Hamden’s election results.

About two hours after Hamden Mayor Curt Leng Tuesday night became the first mayor to win a fourth two-year term, and the Democrats locked in victories in 16 of 17 races, a group that over the last two years rarely gathered in the same room without an argument was drinking beers and scotch together at a bar across the street from town hall.

Many of the major players among Hamden’s Democrats wandered into the gathering at Mickey’s Bar and Grill from farther north on Whitney Avenue, where they had gathered at 8 p.m. to watch election results trickle in.

As Democratic Town Committee (DTC) Secretary Kyle Blake and DTC Chair Lewis Panzo read off vote counts, the tension in the room eased, one district at a time. Once everyone was sure of victory — and one defeat — they moved to Mickey’s for the drinking.

Chante Lewis, the daughter of newly reelected Councilwoman Berita Rowe-Lewis, was sitting around a table with Jacquelyon Bell and Teresa Johnson.

“I’m excited for change,” she said. ​“There’s a change in everyone’s eyes. They want to see change in their own way and they want to see it done collectively.”

Lewis’ mother had just won her seventh term on the council. She is now one of the body’s longest-serving members.

Since Democrat Lauren Garrett declared her primary challenge of Leng in May, starting this election cycle in earnest, the idea of change has been lobbed in every direction — from left to center, from right to center, and from center to left.

Garrett built her campaign on a promise of change. Standing on the steps of town hall on May 1, she declared that it’s time to ​“shut the door on ​‘business as usual.’” Republican Marjorie Bonadies, who just won a hefty victory in Hamden’s ninth Legislative Council district and who currently serves as minority leader, said during an afternoon canvass that ​“what’s on a lot of people’s lips is change.”

And, in its own way, the Democratic establishment leveraged the discourse of change. Kathleen Schomaker, who beat outspoken Leng critic Cory O’Brien in a primary in September, built her campaign on a call for civility. Having served on the council from 2005 to 2017, she is not a new face in Hamden politics. Yet she built her campaign on a departure from the present — specifically, a departure from what she deemed incivility in Hamden politics that thwarted the passage of any legislation, and consequently, thwarted change.

Change, it seems, is on the wind in Hamden. But its meaning differs depending on whom you ask.

Who Really Is New?

On Tuesday, Hamden voted in only three new council members and two new Board of Education members. Democrat Dominique Baez won one of the four at-large council seats, Democrat Valerie Horsley won in the Fourth District, and Democrat Kristin Dolan in the eighth. Democrat Roxana Walker-Canton won a seat on the BOE, as did Republican Gary Walsh, unseating Republican Vic Mitchell, the only sitting politician who lost a race on Tuesday.

The council also regained two members who have served before, but did not serve in the last term. Schomaker is back, this time in the Sixth District, rather than the fifth, where she used to serve. Republican Austin Cesare is back in an at-large seat. He served from 2011- 2017.

The top politician in the town, Leng, will remain. If he serves out his entire term, he will become Hamden’s longest-serving mayor. He became mayor in May of 2015 after winning a special election to finish out the last few months of Scott Jackson’s term. He then won his first full term in November of 2015. Former mayors Lillian Clayman and Carl Amento both served three terms, but neither also served out the last few months of their predecessor’s final term.

This time, Leng will serve with Hamden’s first majority-female council.

Voting In The Criticisms

The critics themselves may not have won. But they opened up a dialogue that may have created a turning point in Hamden politics.

In the last two years, Hamden politics has been defined by what Council President Mick McGarry called a ​“factionalized council.” A more progressive wing of the Democratic party, led by Majority Leader Cory O’Brien, Lauren Garrett, Brad Macdowall, Justin Farmer, and Harry Gagliardi, began to criticize the way Leng and councils past have handled town finances. They asked for documents and numbers that would shed light on how the administration was balancing books. They opposed transfers that put off pension payments, and opposed the use of bonded funds to pay for operating expenses, and they called for the creation of a clear financial plan that would show how Hamden will dig itself out of its more than $1 billion of net liabilities.

As the term progressed, they began to clash with Leng and with longer serving council members including Mick McGarry, Jim Pascarella, John DeRosa, and Berita Rowe-Lewis. 

In the primary in September, both Garrett and O’Brien lost, Garrett in her bid for mayor, and O’Brien in the Sixth District.

At the same time, Republicans began to mount their own electoral attack on the establishment, mustering a full slate of candidates for the first time. Though they attacked from the right and not the left, they lobbed the same critique at Leng and the establishment that also came, ironically, from Hamden’s progressives: It’s time for fiscal responsibility.

Their mayoral candidate, Jay Kaye, did not win, and Democrats won all but one council district seat. Yet the message, which came from both the left and the right, that the town needs to control its finances with different budgeting practices than those of the past may not have lost the election.

Republicans gained ground. In 2017, Republican mayoral candidate Salman Hamid won about 25 percent of the vote. On Tuesday, Kaye won 40 percent. In the Ninth District, Hamden’s Republican District, he won by a significant margin: 1192 to Leng’s 796, or 60 percent. Bonadies beat Democrat Sarah Gagne there by even more: 1,200 to 740.

Republican at-large candidates also saw much larger vote counts than in 2017. Betty Wetmore won over 5000 votes — a full 1,500 more than she did in 2017 as the top Republican at-large. Cesare, with around 4,700, did not trail far behind. Dolphuss Addison, the lowest Republican at-large vote getter, was still just 11 votes shy of the top at-large Republican in 2017.

“We put Republicans on the map,” said Republican Town Committee (RTC) Chair Frank LaDore.

Kaye said he was proud to have received 40 percent of the vote. ​“It showed that there’s a lot of other people out there, voters, who are ready for change,” he told the Independent.

And the voices from the progressive wing of the Democratic party also had a strong showing. Macdowall won the most votes of any at-large candidate by almost 500 votes. Farmer won the Fifth District with 1200 votes, capturing 83 percent, the highest margin of victory of any of the district races, and 100 votes more than Leng won in the Fifth District.

“Voters sent a very clear and loud message last night, and we need to be listening to that,” said Macdowall. He said he heard one message loud and clear from voters when he was out knocking doors: they want fiscal responsibility and accountability. Fiscal responsibility that will help the town deal with its financial woes, and ​“accountability from everyone in terms of whether we’re talking about a budget that makes sense and balances, or town employees being held accountable for their actions when they have implications for people in their own town who they’re supposed to serve.”

“It’s nonstop: ​‘I love Hamden, I want to be here, but I can’t afford it,’” he said. ​“I hope that people have heard that loud and clear, and I hope that in the next two years, we can work together with that in mind.”

Leng, too, said he had heard the same thing from voters. ​“During this campaign, with the amount of people and families I’ve talked to, I fully sympathize with how much Hamden’s tax rate makes people struggle,” he told the Independent.

Though the last two years may have been tough, the messages of critics may continue to resonate into the next term. Documents and information that was not available before is now out in public, said Macdowall. ​“I think that two-year debate over who we are and who we want to be as a council and as a town was critical,” he said.

What Will Change Look Like?

At around 11:30, Leng was still at Mickey’s. He held a glass of scotch and took periodic sips. Scotch, he explained, is his post-election tradition. A friend bought a bottle to celebrate after an election in 2003, and the tradition stuck.

That doesn’t mean he likes the actual drink.

“I feel like I’m consuming gasoline,” he said through a post-sip scowl, most of the beverage remaining in his glass.

He laid out his plans for the next term with three categories: taxes and finances, programming that will help residents, and things that people value.

In the first category are all of his economic development plans. He said he will try to develop the High Meadows property and change zoning laws to make them more business friendly. In the second category is a hodgepodge of ideas: more senior tax relief, including lobbying the state to allow a homestead exemption, and programs for youth that focus on preventing suicide and drug use. Under the third are public safety and improvements to neighborhoods.

He paused to take a sip. ​“Yeah, that tastes awful,” he confirmed.

Then he launched into how he will deal with the council.

“I am going to do more outreach to the council to try and forge these relationships that will help us get things done for the town,” he said. ​“This body seems in its make-up more strongly suited to do that than the last one.”

As Leng talked about his plans for the future, LaDore floated between Democrats, giving his well-wishes to the candidates who had just beaten his own. He hugged Schomaker, congratulating her for running a clean campaign.

In June, he told the Independent that if Republicans got three seats, he’d be ​“very happy. Four: I’m doing somersaults.” He wasn’t doing somersaults on the floor of Mickey’s on Tuesday, but, in his words, he was ​“happy.”

Next, he said, his strategy will be to capture unaffiliated voters, keep the Republican hold on the Ninth District, and make inroads into some others. He said he was surprised that his candidate lost by only 100 votes in the first. The seventh, too, he said, could be promising. ​“We’re not going to be the Democrats. We’re not going to have 10,000. But we’re going to be formidable,” he said.

At midnight, McGarry was still hanging out with his fellow Democrats in Mickey’s, looking at his term ahead. ​“I’m really excited,” he said. ​“I’m really hopeful about this council.”

Earlier in the evening, at the Democratic campaign headquarters at 4133 Whitney Ave, he posed for a picture with Schomaker and newly-elected Kristin Dolan.

“It’s a friendly council right now,” said someone looking at the three smiling politicians.

McGarry, as always, was quick. A wry smile came over his face. ​“We haven’t voted on anything yet,” he joked.